New COVID-19 variant rattles oil markets but impact unclear

New COVID-19 variant rattles oil markets but impact unclear

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Omicron coronavirus variant kicked oil prices lower late last week and has sapped refining margins, but with crude futures rallying on Monday, the impact could be limited, reported Reuters.

Governments worldwide have imposed curbs on travelers to try limit the spread of Omicron, first detected in southern Africa, as scientists race to determine the level of risk.

Oil prices plunged more than 10% on Friday - their largest daily drop since April 2020 - but recovered some of those losses on Monday, standing up nearly 5% on the day. Analysts said the Friday sell-off had been excessive.

Refining margins fell further, increasing the impact of new coronavirus curbs that had already been rolled out in Europe.

On Friday, European diesel barge refining margins touched a three-month low of about USD8 a bbl, although oil price volatility kept trading liquidity low. Jet fuel cargo margins were assessed at about USD7.7 a bbl, near a two-and-a-half month low.

"This broad-based correction reflected fears that the Omicron variant would turn into a major headwind to oil demand," bank JP Morgan said, referring to Friday's price move.

But it said it expected demand recovery from the pandemic to continue even though consumption forecasts had weakened before last week's sell-off.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, earlier this month, TotalEnergies and Daimler Truck AG signed an agreement on their joint commitment to the decarbonization of the road freight in the European Union. The partners will collaborate in the development of ecosystems for heavy-duty trucks running on hydrogen, with the intent to demonstrate the attractiveness and effectiveness of trucking powered by clean hydrogen and the ambition to play a lead role in kickstarting the rollout of hydrogen infrastructure for transportation.

We also remind that TotalEnergies has recently inaugurated the extension of Synova in Normandy, the French leader in recycled polypropylene (PP) production. TotalEnergies is therefore doubling its mechanical recycling production capacity for recycled polymers, to meet growing demand for sustainable polymers from customers, such as Automotive Manufacturer (Auto OEM) and the construction industry.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
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BP announces huge green hydrogen project at UK Teesside

BP announces huge green hydrogen project at UK Teesside

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP unveiled its largest green hydrogen initiative so far in the UK, with plans for renewable hydrogen production in north-east England it believes could grow to half a gigawatt of electrolyser capacity by the end of the decade, according to Upstream.

The UK supermajor aims to build an initial 60-megawatt green hydrogen plant by 2025 as the first step in its HyGreen Teesside project.

That could then grow in stages that “match production to demand” to 500MW of electrolysis by the end of the decade, adding to 1GW of planned blue hydrogen capacity – based on gas linked to carbon capture - under the already-announced H2Teesside initiative.

Matt Williamson, a vice president for hydrogen at BP, said the early focus of the planned electrolysis would be supplying a new generation of heavy trucks using fuel cells. BP signed a memorandum of understanding with Daimler Truck late last month to jointly develop a network of UK refuelling stations, releasing a joint statement that explicitly referred to green hydrogen from renewable-powered electrolysis.

“HyGreen is the supply end of that,” Williamson told Upstream's sister publication Recharge, adding that the first 60MW would be able to fuel about 1300 large trucks, replacing heavy vehicles that would otherwise rely on diesel.

HyGreen and H2Teesside - which BP said between them could account for 30% of the UK government's 5GW 2030 target for hydrogen production - are themselves part of a wider push to turn the region into the UK’s first integrated hydrogen hub and a major source of the fuel for heavy industry.

The scale of the first phase outstrips a 20MW electrolyser planned by Iberdrola in Scotland, which earlier this year was claimed as the largest so far planned in the UK.

BP is pursing one of the most ambitious renewable power build plans of any oil and gas group, with a target to have 50GW net on its books globally by 2030 and a pipeline that already includes a half-stake in 3GW of offshore wind in the Irish Sea that’s due in service later in the decade, with the potential for more major projects off the UK that could see part of their production allocated to renewable hydrogen. It is also in line to produce green hydrogen on a smaller scale in Aberdeen.

The company expects to make a final investment decision on the first phase of HyGreen by 2023, but like others advancing hydrogen projects in the UK, it is waiting with bated breath to see what support will be available from the nation's government.

As MRC wrote previously, in October, 2021, BP announced plans for a USD269 million investment in three projects at its Cherry Point Refinery in Washington state, aimed at improving the refinery’s efficiency, reducing its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and increasing its renewable diesel production capability. The investment is aligned with bp’s aims to be net zero across its operations by 2050 or sooner and to reduce the carbon intensity of the products it sells by 50% by 2050 or sooner.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. BP’s business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world's hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
MRC

Eni and CNR resigned their agreement

Eni and CNR resigned their agreement

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The President of the National Research Council (CNR), Maria Chiara Carrozza, and Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, today signed the renewal of the framework agreement as part of joint research and technological innovation activities for a duration of three years plus two additional optional years, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The agreement provides for the development of projects and initiatives to address the challenges of the energy transition through the identification of strategic areas of development such as operational excellence, i.e. the identification of key technologies for resource development, decarbonization, energy saving, the circular economy and sustainability in processes related to the local community development.

The Eni and the CNR partnership began in 2009 and over the years has led to innovative solutions in various fields, including solar energy, the phyto-purification of contaminated water and soils and the reuse of CO2, seeing the registration of around 24 patents for proprietary technologies.

The new Agreement sits alongside the Joint Research Agreement, signed by the parties in 2019, which led to the creation of four joint research centers, located in Southern Italy (Lecce, Gela, Metaponto and Portici) that contribute to the design of projects for sustainable environmental and economic development in Italy and worldwide.

As MRC wrote earlier, Eni is evaluating conversion of its Livorno refinery in northwest Italy into a biorefinery, as part of the Italian company's wider strategy to make its activities more environmentally sustainable. Eni has already converted two of its Italian refineries and is looking to almost double its biorefining capacity to around 2 million mt/year by 2024, and expand this to at least five times by 2050, as part of its pledge to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2050.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Eni, abbreviation of Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, in full Eni SpA, Italian energy company operating primarily in petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals. Established in 1953, it is one of Europe's largest oil companies in terms of sales.
MRC

INEOS Styrolution confirmed its decision to invest into a plant for recycling of polystyrene

INEOS Styrolution confirmed its decision to invest into a plant for recycling of polystyrene

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has today confirmed its decision to invest into a pilot plant for advanced recycling of polystyrene, said the company.

The site will be set up in collaboration with Recycling Technologies in Swindon, UK. It is expected to be operational in the second half of 2022.

The decision announced today is a significant step forward launching polystyrene recycling through depolymerisation technology. Depolymerisation is an advanced recycling technology that converts polystyrene waste feedstock back into its main building block, Styrene which can then be used to manufacture new polystyrene with identical properties to the virgin material. The unique properties of polystyrene allow this efficient monomer recycling process to be harnessed avoiding the need to downcycle polystyrene. An additional benefit of depolymerisation is a significant decrease of greenhouse gas emissions when compared with the production of virgin polystyrene from naphtha.

The Swindon pilot plant will be based on Recycling Technologies’ fluidised bed reactor technology, which offers excellent scalability making it the technology of choice for future even larger recycling plants.

Dr. Alexander Gluck, President EMEA at INEOS Styrolution comments, “I am excited to see this project move ahead. With Recycling Technologies, we have found a partner, who is not only offering a very attractive technology, but who is also sharing our own vision to avoid polystyrene ending up in landfills or being incinerated. We are on the right path to make polystyrene a circular material."

Adrian Griffiths, CEO & Founder of Recycling Technologies Ltd., adds, “We welcome INEOS Styrolution’s decision and are pleased to be a critical element of the team to build Europe’s first advanced chemical polystyrene recycling facility. Harnessing our fluidised bed engineering technology and expertise to recycling polystyrene is a critical step to making polystyrene circular."

As it was written earlier, INEOS Styrolution joined the U.S. Plastics Pact in their support for collaborative, solution-driven initiatives intended to drive significant system change in the design, use, and reuse of plastics. The U.S. Plastic Pact unites cross-sector approaches, setting a national strategy, and creating scalable solutions to create a path forward toward a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025.

As per ICIS-MRC Price Report, market participants said a shortage of material remained in the polystyrene (PS) market at the end of the month. Penoplex's December prices still remained under negotiation, the producer plans to announce them to market participants next week. The average spot styrene monomer (SM) prices grew to the range of USD1,550-1,570/tonne.

INEOS Styrolution is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 29.11.2021

1. IEA raises 2022 average crude oil price assumption to USD79.40 a bbl

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The International Energy Agency (IEA) has upped its average Brent crude oil price assumption for 2022 to USD79.40 a bbl, but predicted a rally may ease off as prices that hit a three-year high last month push up global production, reported Reuters. The Paris-based IEA said on Tuesday that much of the uptick in supply is due to come from the United States. A hurricane battered the main US production and export hub in the Gulf coast in late August, but US output made up for half the increase in global oil production last month. But the IEA said in its monthly report that US production, despite climbing, would not return to pre-pandemic levels until the end of next year. It is due to account for 60% of non-OPEC+ supply gains in 2022.


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